-fil-as, crystal's, what taburger. where is the nearest one? it's still big. former congressmanjessejackson's facingjail time after pleading guilty to misusing hundreds of thousands of campaign funds. a tearful jackson apologized to his family and friends. nbc's justice correspondent pete williams takes us through this sad case. >> reporter: for jesse jackson jr., the walk into the courthouse was the end of a slow-motion fall from grace. he told a federal judge, for years i have lived off my campaign, admitting that he took money received in political contributions and used it to make more than 3,000 separate purchases for himself and his wife over the past seven years. a $43,000 gold watch, $19,000 for one of michael jackson's guitars, $16,000 for a pair of elk heads. tens of thousands more in furnishings for their homes in washington and chicago. total value, $750,000. >> jesse jackson jr. had the drive, the ability and the talent to be the voice of a new generation. but he squandered that talent. >> reporter: as he left, jackson was apologetic. >> it's not a proud day. i'm sorry i let e

bradley cooper is with us. also, reverendjessejacksononhis organization's meetings this week on wall street. we'll also be asking him about the continuing murders in chicago. his hometown. they do not stop. also, member of the senate armed services committee, senator richard blumenthal. he had a front-row seat at whatever that was yesterday we were just looking at. we'll talk to him about chuck hagel and whether he's closer or further away from supporting him. also, "the washington post's" bob woodward will be here. and up next, cory booker is likely to be eyeing a run for senator, but frank lautenberg, man, he's going after booker. >> interesting. >> pretty tough. we'll be talking about that, too. >>> first, let's go right now to bill karins. >> oh, lord. >> he's got the weather. >> ratings are going to plummet. bill. >> washington, d.c., overnight was expecting some snow showers and some flurries. oops. it's snowing. already an inch or two on the ground in some areas of maryland. and it's snowing hard from around annapolis across the chesapeake, and as you go into maryland and now

night there was a special election. it was in a democratic seat to replacejessejackson. alot of people are scoffing about it. conservatives immediately because michael bloomberg went in. there was a candidate that was in a competitive race who was supported by the nra. bloomberg came in. and it changed everything overnight. >> he did. and he spent, i believe, $2 million on that race in a media market like chicago in a race at this level, $2 million is a lot of money. it's a lot of money anywhere. but coming in at the last minute and flood, saturate the airwaves with advertising in support of her and, you know, look. we talked about this a couple days before on the program. the mayor is a dangerous man in american politics right now for people who want to fight this battle. >> yeah, whatever you want to spend on trying to advocate for guns, he will triple, double, quadruple, he will spend more. >> he's got a limitless bank account, and as i said the other day, a lot of really smart political advisors who know that they want him to have an impact. and he cares about this. he's

, is now spending a million dollars on a special house race in illinois to replacejessejacksonjr.it's going after one of the candidates who has said that she's against banning assault rifles who has an a-plus from nra. so mayor bloomberg, who's spending big on this race through his mayors group, through his podium, he's using this race as a referendum on the big -- on this issue. >> so mike, when you start counting votes, though, when you look at the congress, what is realistic for the president? is he still looking at an assault weapons ban? background checks? where can he end up on this? >> no, willie, that's very astute. and background checks is where they're hoping to end up. our conversations with house leadership, so there's no appetite in those districts for anything broader than that. the house has said that they're going to wait until a bill comes out of the senate. but the same thing that's going on with immigration. the senate is going to pass a big bill. the house wants to do it piece by piece. that makes it much harder to get anything new. and that key stat that says it